Real IRA makes a point

The Real IRA underlined its ability to launch terrorist attacks on the British mainland when a bomb planted by the dissident republican group exploded outside a post office depot in north London.

No one was hurt in the blast which is thought to have been symbolic, marking the 85th anniversary of the Easter Rising when Irish republican insurgents seized control of the post office in Dublin before being overwhelmed by cannon fire from British troops.

The device, which contained about a pound of high explosive similar to that used in the bombing of Hammersmith bridge last year, detonated at 11.28pm on Saturday at a sorting office on the corner of Edgware Road and Goldsmith Road in Hendon, north London. No coded warning was given before the explosion.

The bomb was placed against a bricked-up doorway at the front of the sorting office and the force of the blast shattered windows on the ground and first floors.

The depot, empty at the time, employs 100 staff and is next door to a 400-pupil nursery school and an Irish pub, The Glen, which was full.

Speculating on the motivation for the attack, Alan Fry, head of the anti-terrorist branch, said the anniversary of the siege of Dublin post office was a likely factor.

"It is significant because this is a post office and fits in with the Easter Rising, which is being celebrated in Ireland this weekend," he said.

"You have to consider the state of the Good Friday agreement, and also the film Michael Collins [a dramatisation of the Easter Rising] was being shown on television last night at the time of the explosion."

Mr Fry said the nature and timing of the attack and the device used indicated it was the work of a Real IRA cell thought to be active in the capital.

Police now believe the Real IRA has caused five explosions in London since June, including a large taxi bomb planted outside the BBC Television Centre in west London six weeks ago.
Devices were also planted at Hammersmith bridge and on a railway line at Acton, west London, while a mortar was fired at MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, central London.

The brazen nature of the attacks on MI6 and the BBC has led security sources to speculate that the London cell contains at least one extremely audacious member willing to carry out high-risk attacks.

Mr Fry described the bombers as "reckless" and said only luck had prevented death or injury. "This is a particularly worrying incident, because there was no prior coded warning. It caught everyone by surprise," he said.

"It's just luck that no one was hurt. It's a residential area, there are pubs in the vicinity, and, as it occurred on a busy road, there was also a danger to any passing vehicles.
"As everyone knows, flying glass can be fatal. When the windows exploded, they could have shattered over passers-by."

Des O'Kelly, 53, an electrician with London Underground who lives closest to the scene of the explosion, said the blast shook his house. "I was watching Michael Collins on the television when I heard the blast and the whole building shook," he said.

"I knew what it was straight away because I've heard them before in Ireland. I wasn't frightened because once you hear the bang you know the worst is over. But it doesn't make you feel too comfortable when they go off next door."

The Real IRA is still considered the main terrorist threat to the Northern Ireland peace process, and security forces had feared a mainland "spectacular" from the group, possibly a lorry bomb.
The modest size and target of this latest attack, however, may indicate that recent developments in Ireland and the US have dealt the organisation a significant blow.

Last month Michael McKevitt was charged with directing terrorism under legislation introduced following the Omagh bombing in 1998. Twenty-nine people were killed in the attack which was carried out by Real IRA members.

His wife Bernadette McKevitt-Sands, the sister of Republican hunger-striker Bobby Sands, was also questioned but released without charge.

It also emerged recently that an American, posing as a wealthy businessman interested in the republican cause, had infiltrated the group. David Rupert is thought to have provided crucial information about the Real IRA to MI5 and the FBI.

He is likely to be the crucial witness at McKevitt's trial, which starts later this month.
Last Friday, the Real IRA issued a statement repeating its opposition to the Good Friday agreement and pledged to step up its terror campaign.

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